Technology has advanced to the point where businesses and offices are purchasing distributed computer systems so that substantially every employee has a computer at his or her desk, and the various computers in the business or office are interconnected to form a distributed computer network. The ultimate goal of such innovation is to arrive eventually at the point where the business or office will be "paperless". In such an environment, as the term "paperless" suggests, paper communication between the various employees will be completely or virtually eliminated, and will be replaced by data communication from one employee's computer to another employee's computer via the distributed computer network.
However, as advantageous as such a distributed computer network is, there is a problem. Specifically, since such a distributed computer network calls for the replacement of each employee's typewriter by a computer with keyboard, printer and monitor, certain employees are at a loss when it comes to filling out forms which they customarily utilize in their work. One solution, but not at all a desirable solution, is for such an employee to retain a typewriter at his or her working position. This is expensive, and also tends to clutter up the employee's working position, especially since a substantial amount of space must be allocated for the computer, keyboard, printer and monitor.
Accordingly, it is considered desirable to provide such an employee with the ability to fill out forms easily using the computer, keyboard, monitor and printer alone, thus eliminating the necessity to maintain a typewriter as well.
The following two patents are considered to be of general background interest relative to the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 3,846,022 --Kurhi and U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,515--Harris.